But between men and women, it did not only a few years ago. In 1991, the university hired Butch Beard as men's basketball coach and paid him more than Tyler though he had no head coaching experience and she had 11 years' worth. Though her teams had won six Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournaments and a berth in the NCAA Tournament in 1981-82, her second season.

There were other problems, too.

Tyler, 45, sued Howard for sex discrimination under Title IX. And she won. It was the first time a jury awarded monetary damages ($2.4 million) in a Title IX suit since a Supreme Court decision allowed plaintiffs to collect damages in such cases.

Four days later, a judge pared the amount to $1.1 million. Tyler would not elaborate on how much she received, though she said it was far less than that figure.

It was more of a moral victory for Tyler, whose team will play UConn (30-3)Saturday night at 8 at sold-out Gampel Pavilion in Storrs in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Howard (20-9) is the 16th seed in the Mideast Regional; UConn is No. 1.

Tyler was the driving force behind a revolution of sorts in women's college athletics. Marianne Stanley, a respected women's basketball coach since 1974, sued Southern Cal in 1993 for not paying her as much as the men's basketball coach, George Raveling. Women's golf coach Ann Pitts filed suit the same year against Oklahoma State, seeking the same salary as the men's golf coach.

``There's no doubt the Howard case definitely got a lot of people thinking,'' Kathryn Reith, formerly with the Women's Sports Foundation and now director of NCAA public information, told The Washington Post in 1993.

Title IX and gender equity became buzzwords at universities across the country, as female athletes and their schools began to understand the law and Title IX compliance. When women's programs were cut, lawsuits or the threat of them popped up at Brown, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Bridgeport, among other schools.

``Athletic directors started to get a better perspective of what should be done for the women,'' Tyler said. ``Many [women's] coaches began to receive comparable salaries to the men. When the jury awarded $2.4 million, that sent a serious message that Title IX is a law, not a recommendation, and it should be adhered to.''

When Tyler filed suit, her attorney, Robert Bell, said she made $20,000 as a part-time women's basketball coach. From 1986-91, he said, Tyler also worked as the associate athletic director and made $42,000 in that capacity. She applied for the vacant athletic director's position in 1991, didn't get it, then was removed from her administrative position and made a full-time basketball coach for a salary of $44,000. She was also moved to an office that was a former storage closet and shared it with the volleyball coach, he said.

Beard was offered a $78,500 salary and a car, Bell said. Tyler said she was told he had played in the NBA; she had not. Beard had also been an assistant coach with the Knicks and New Jersey Nets. He left Howard after the 1993-94 season and became the Nets' coach.

``I was starting to be held to standards that had nothing to do with me,'' Tyler said. ``We had won conference championships. We had successful graduation rates. We wanted to put banners up and they were reluctant to do that. It was clearly drawn along a sex line.''

Tyler was reluctant, initially, to be drawn into a fight. As she said, ``How do you fight a school that you have represented and that you are intrinsically involved with?''

After she filed the suit, recruiting became a nightmare. It was difficult for her to go to a recruit's house and say, ``Come to Howard. Look at the opportunities.''

``That was my greatest fear,'' she said. ``But I refused to let them steal that part of Howard I believed in. The parents would say, `If they're not doing right by you, how are they going to do right by my daughter?' ''

And Tyler would answer: ``By virtue of the fact that I am still here.''

Her biggest recruit was sophomore Denique Graves, a 6-foot-5 center from Philadelphia who, Tyler said, had offers to go to Iowa, Virginia or North Carolina.

Said Tyler at the time: ``This kid has made the supreme statement coming to Howard. She could have gone anywhere. I could still sell Howard even after all the injustices.''

The dust has settled, for the most part. After a number of appeals, a settlement was reached last year. There is a new president at the university H. Patrick Swygert who supports women's athletics and even attended the NCAA Tournament party for the team hosted by Tyler's sister Sunday night.

Tyler is glad she did what she did.

``Very few things come your way in life that afford you the opportunity to prove yourself,'' she said. ``There's no doubt in my mind that I did the right thing.''